Tales of Faerun

[AurianaValoria1]

Aodh lazily crawled from around his warm rock at the smell of meat. As he did so, he was suddenly surprised to see the faerie dragon across from him. Upon spotting him, she swiftly took her chunk of meat and pulled it out of his reach, promptly turning her back on him and nibbling away at her food. Shocked and even a little hurt, Aodh made a small "Hmph!" sound and took his own piece of meat back to his rock. Nearby, Sir Meowsalot bristled at the presence of the wolf pup, his fur standing on end, until he saw the rabbit that Nawen promptly cut up. Almost immediately after the ranger set the meat in front of him, the kitten pounced on it and began chowing down, making noisy munching sounds all the while.

 

After listening to Tannin's story, Zorica waited until he walked off before remarking, "So....saved a damsel in distress and slew the villain who imprisoned her, eh? So he's odd and cliche?"

 

"Only he's not a knight in shining armor," Dagny added, finishing her kabob and taking a piece of bison meat.

 

"Hm," Rhaine started, chewing a bite of venison thoughtfully before swallowing and continuing, "That reminds me...we were telling stories back in Iljak before we were interrupted by those wererats. Now's as good a time as any to continue our tale-telling. Who wants to share one?"

 

The silver dragon edged a bit closer, eyes fixated on the members of the party gathered there.

 

After a few moments, Conall spoke up as he pulled his shirt on over his head, "I suppose I can. Plenty of tales I can share. Though, it might help if someone asked something in particular first."

[mythicdawnmaster]

Aurora wasn't quite certain that which she should feel when faced with the dragon before her... as the great, majestic beast came in to land her smirk faded and her eyes grew doe like, mouth opening in aprehension; perhaps not fear, not quite, but she was rather uncertain. But as the beast familiarized itself with the group and showed it meant them no harm, Aurora's demeanour picked itself back up as Tannin begun to spin his tale about the dragon and her obsession with him... she coughed as he mentioned it stalking his every move... it wasn't like Aurora was a stalker at all... she didn't walk in his shadow, sit in his path, watch him sleep... "Ohh the meat looks nice! Doesn't the meat look nice?" She commented aloud; mainly to herself as it happened, and moved to get herself some. As Rhaine mentioned story-time again Aurora gave a contented sigh and tried not to glance in the general direction of Tannin and Nawen... oh so SHE got all the attention did she? Well, Aurora would simply have to display what Tannin was missing...

 

As Conall mentioned his multitude of tales, Aurora approached and decided to perch herself next to him "Maybe you could tell us about something exciting, and dangerous- you must have seen a lot in your travels?" She leant closer to Conall and batted her eyelids, giving him her undivided attention.

Edited April 28, 2014 by mythicdawnmaster

[tokyobiohazard]

Aera's jaw dropped as Aurora moved to Conall and began to... flirt with him. Her cheeks felt hot as she stood up from her spot next to Ianthe and Arva and walked over to Conall, wishing she could shove Aurora away, for some unknown reason. She stood in front of the two of them and then said, "Conall, you should tell us about your first hunt," before planting her behind firmly in the sand before him, sitting cross-legged.

"My first hunt was when I was but a cub. I caught a mouse, from what my mother told me. She said I caught it much in the way a kitten normally would. I toyed with it until it was dead." She looked at Aurora as she said those final words.

Arva grinned, "Jealous, Aera?"

"You shut your mouth! I am not jealous! I'm simply curious about Conall's first hunt as a werewolf." Aera replied in a louder-than-usual tone.

Arva laughed at the weretiger, "I think you're jealous, just saying."

"I am SO not jealous. Come on, Conall, story time." Aera rubbed her hands together and smiled, her face feeling hotter than ever.

"I've seen more flirting tact in Ianthe, for gods' sakes." Arva crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"What are we talking about?" Ianthe said, roused from making a sandcastle at the mention of her name.

[Flipout6]

Listening to the conversations go around the campfire, Weyland and Sybille had fun interjecting their own little comments. Sometimes Weyland would toss a question or two at the dragon.

 

"Yeah, you're right." Weyland told Dagny. "I'm the knight in shining armor here."

 

"Pfft, you'd show up to your own knighting drunk." Sybille teased, earning a laugh from Amendale.

 

It quickly became apparent when Aurora opted for Connall's attention that Aera was far from pleased, and Weyland whistled in-between bites of meat. "Hoo, looks like we're about to have a catfight on our hands, people!"

 

Amendale sighed. "If they start to actually fight I'll restrain them."

 

"Nah, let 'em sort out their differences. A little scuffle never hurt anybody." Sybille chimed in. "...Well, maybe ones that weren't over a man haven't." She grinned. Then she glanced sideways and began to snort with restrained laughter when she saw that Marie had snuck off and shoved her face into the lake in an effort to run the deer blood off. Annette looked at her sister and her face contorted from confusion to a goofy grin, and she shook her head as Marie glared back at them, embarrassed and indignant.

 

"Could just use a washcloth, you know." Sybille taunted.

 

"Alright, alright, take it easy, Sybbie." Annette ordered with a sigh and a smile.

 

Aera's bashful protest rang out across the campsite, loud and embarrassed, which prompted Sybille to state loudly, "What's with you two? I've seen less competition in brothels!" Weyland stared.

 

"....Sybille." He began. "...What were you doing in a brothel?"

 

"The hells do you think?" She replied. "I was there on business." She smirked cheekily, before adding, "...and perhaps a little bit of pleasure." This time it was Annette's turn to gape.

 

"Wha-?!?!" Weyland's face contorted into a wide variety of different, equally horrified expressions.

 

"Hey, in Westgate, you take work where you can find it." She stared her older brother directly in the eye with a MASSIVE grin on her face. His eye twitched. Annette was blushing fiercely. Finally Sybille couldn't hold it in any longer, and she burst out laughing. "You shoulda seen your faces!" She gasped and wheezed and clutched her stomach, her face turning red as a beet. "Okay look, sometimes they'll hire me to scare off any unsavory characters, and sometimes I'll stay for drinks after."

 

"You had me going for a second." Weyland looked shell-shocked.

 

"And just drinks. No other vices." She affirmed. "....By the way, this is all your fault for asking what I was doing in there."

Edited April 30, 2014 by Flipout6

[AurianaValoria1]

Now fully clothed again, Conall glanced sideways at Aurora with his electric blue gaze and raised one eyebrow at the bardess. Before he could answer her, however, Aera injected herself into the situation rather abruptly; her not-so-subtle warning was not lost on the werewolf, and he looked between the two women with a slightly bewildered expression. Finally, however, he remarked with a glance to Weyland and a cheeky grin, "Catfight? Is that the best you can come up with, lad?"

 

Then, returning his attention to Aera, he replied, "My first hunt as a werewolf? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the blood of my clan was not for hunting game...generations of it made it entirely controllable, and I never used it to hunt anything - my parents made sure of that. Honestly, the earliest I can tell you of hunting is when I snared my first rabbit. I was five or six at the time, and my uncle had just shown me how to snare and trap small game. I was rather proud of catching that little beast, and I kept its hide as a good luck trinket for years afterward. I think mother finally tossed it in the midst of one of her cleaning moods." His eyes grew distant for a few moments before he added, "Now, my first battle as a werewolf? That's a different story. Though, you did see what happened back in Iljak. It's pretty much the same now as it was the first time I killed a man, as a beast or otherwise. Same foe, same fight, same conflict...over, and over, and over."

 

He fell silent for a few moments. Zorica watched him with glowing amber eyes and glanced back to Aera, wondering if the weretigress had touched a nerve. Suddenly, though, he spoke again, his voice hushed and tinged with certain awe. His phrases came out somewhat haltingly as he thought, his gaze focused on his feet.

 

"It always catches me by surprise...even now. Past thirty summers old and I'm still uneasy anytime it happens...the change, I mean. I can always rein it in if I want to. I always have a choice. Selune has blessed me with that simple gift, and I will forever be thankful for it. But it still...frightens me sometimes. That burning feeling of primal...predatory...rage. It comes about every time I am in danger. Survival instinct, and all that, of course...perfectly understandable for one of our kind. But only when I'm fighting Raidan's ilk do I ever...let it happen."

 

He abruptly looked up at Aera, "What about you? You were infected, weren't you? I hear that's more...difficult...to control. Were you ever...are you ever...frightened? Afraid you'll go too far, someday? Afraid you might lose yourself...forever?"

 

Meanwhile, Dagny was giggling uncontrollably at Sybille and Weyland. She had pulled out her Everfull Mug and was already on a second round. Zorica found herself watching the magical tankard with rapt interest, much as she had the development of Tenebris's personal bathhouse. Sir Meowsalot still ate in front of her feet, bits of meat all over his fuzzy face.

 

Rhaine had finished her part of the meal and had begun braiding her hair, but then stopped, throwing it back over her shoulders with a frustrated sigh. It had gotten much longer since their journey had begun and was now over halfway down her back. It felt in the way when it was left down damp at such a length, but every method of putting it up was so...bland. She was temporarily at a loss - should she make a ponytail? Braid? Bun? The Doomguide pulled up her knees, leaning on them with her elbows and putting her chin in her hands.

 

Dagny chuckled, "Hair crisis?"

 

Rhaine smirked, "You could say that."

[tokyobiohazard]

Aera was completely rapt as she listened to Conall, forgetting about Aurora and realizing this had become the conversation she'd wanted to have with him. She was taken aback as he said he was afraid. His question toward her made her stop and think for a moment as she realized that she'd never been afraid when perhaps she should have been.

"I suppose... I suppose it's all I've ever known, Conall." She paused and rubbed her upper arms, feeling cool with her fur still wet but not daring to move closer to the fire. "I've never stopped and thought I could lose myself because it's a part of who I am. If that makes sense. But if the day ever came where I lost myself to something like our affliction, I'm still not sure what I'd do. As for my transformations, it was hard to reign them in at first and I spent much of my youth as a tiger cub. As I grew, I was able to change forms more easily and now it comes to me with the ease of changing clothes."

She suddenly felt self-conscious and looked down at the sand around her.

"This is getting deep." Arva whispered to Ianthe, who nodded vigorously.

[Deleted6317247User]

"Me-ow!" Shalena said after Weyland's catfight comment. She would have enjoyed to see one, even proposed a bet, but alas it seemed that there will be no fighting. Still, it was amusing to watch the little scene, and since she was sitting close to Arva, she nudged the sun elf. "Does this happen often," she asked, " I mean, the jealousy outbursts?"

 

She then listened to both Conall's and Aera's stories with her brow slightly furrowed. She knew very little of werewolves but to her it seemed that their affliction had no downsides, apart from turning into a creepy animal-like beast.

[josh900]

Tannin let out a laugh. "Well you didn't hear but I've got a bad history with damsels in distress, so I'm glad I won't have to worry about you all the time, would be a handful. Drows tend to attract trouble you know." He laughed, eyes shifted down at her as she sat beside him. He quickly turned his head to his pack and pulled out everything he needed to work on her armor. "Course I will my lady." He said, examining his tools before setting to work. and to tell his tale. "This is how my lifelong career of adventuring began."

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OOC Because spoiler tags hate me for some reason, follow this link for the story. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZNWyq8C-VW4PLlZSKPoPZ8-1b8b6R-5nRsau_RdkTx0/edit?usp=sharing

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"So I agreed to his terms and eventually found a creek to wash myself in." Tannin said to Nawen, finishing his tale. "Not exactly my finest hour but I was young and stupid. And it got me with a group that I spent... gods... sixty... seventy... maybe even eighty years with." He said with a smile. "I know it wasn't all that grand or exciting but, well all the real good stories came much later." He said with a shrug, hoping that at the least, she wasn't bored by it.

Edited April 30, 2014 by josh900

[AurianaValoria1]

Conall reached out and placed his hand firmly on Aera's shoulder, squeezing slightly, "Hold on to your mind, Aera, and to your goodness. They are the only things that separate us from those who attacked us in Iljak." With that, the paladin fell silent, immersing himself in his own meal of kabobs and bison.

 

Zorica, after a few moments, spoke up, "Well, who's next?"

 

"How about you?" Dagny elbowed her.

 

"No!" the half-drow started, "I mean...well...I don't really have anything. Especially not since...I really don't..."

"Know us well enough? Oh come on," the dwarf pressed, "There's got to be a wee bit of something ye can tell?"

 

Zorica glanced frantically around the campfire with an expression that screamed Help me!

[Flipout6]

"...Things just got deep." Weyland commented, looking surprised..

 

"You wouldn't know deep if you were dropped into the ocean." Sybille and Amendale piped up simultaneously, sparking laughter from Weyland and Annette in addition to themselves. Over by the lake, they heard Marie splutter and cough as she snickered and inhaled water.

 

"Alright, alright, I'll give you that one." Weyland conceded.

 

Sybille, noting Zorica's discomfort, decided to heap some on Rhaine just for the hells of it. "So, on the topic of brothels.... RHAINE, you must have some juicy stories. Maybe a sordid church affair? Sneaking out for some late-night fun to escape the stuffiness of the church? Maybe a fall from grace for just a little while? ....Or was it something boring like getting attacked when you just wanted out of there?" She grinned slyly.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Flipout6